Icemen on cruise control with easy 4-0 win

After a brief hiccup against the Sherwood Park Knights last week, the Icemen quickly found their winning form once more.

The Icemen cruised to a 4-0 win over the Strathcona Bruins Jan. 25, closing out the season series against the Bruins with a record of 3-1.

The win puts the club into second in the east division, just one point back from the Knights.

The Icemen were without head coach Rick Gregory, serving the first game of his two-game suspension after receiving a bench minor at the end of the Sherwood Park game.

The Wetaskiwin club was helmed by assistant coach Richard Dupre.

“Our goal before the game, I just asked our guys to just outwork the other team,” said Dupre. “You know the old quote ‘work beats talent unless talent works,’ so the guys did just that.”

The first frame was one of brotherly love. Mitchell Bowie opened the scoring with just five minutes left in the period, assisted by his brother Corey, who scored just over two minutes later, assisted by brothers DJ and Ryley Bennefield.

“It was pretty cool, I know Corey and Mitch both attended a funeral that day too, so it was nice for them to be able to get their mind off everything,” said Dupre. “It was up in the air whether they were both going to play or not and when they both felt up for it and they go and score, that’s pretty cool.”

After a lull in action and no scoring in the second, team top scorer DJ Bennefield opened the third period with his first goal in three games and Dylan McKay sealed the game with a powerplay goal.

“For us to lead all game and not give up any goals, we didn’t see a power play until the third period and we got a goal on that. To be able to win a game without even using your powerplay, that’s huge. It just shows how strong we are at even strength,” said Dupre.

The penalty kill proved effective once more, killing all six Bruins powerplays.

Jeremy Balyk was in net for the Icemen and stopped all 18 shots to earn his first shutout of the season.

“I think it was a really big on for Jeremy because that’s his old stomping ground in Strathcona,” said Dupre. “To play against his old team and shut them out, I think he was pretty excited about it. He played a really solid game; just took care of home plate, wasn’t trying to do anything too crazy, and that’s what we ask from him.”

“At the same time the shutout can’t go recognized without saying how good our team played defensively.”

“It’s pretty good when you can outshoot a team 42-18, you should be on the winning end of that.”

The Icemen are at home this weekend, first playing the North Edmonton Red Wings Friday, Feb. 1, and head coach Gregory will be back on the bench to face off against the Sherwood Park Knights Sunday, Feb. 3.

“It’s kind of funny that he went out (on suspension) against Sherwood and comes back against Sherwood,” said Dupre.

“That loss in Sherwood Park was a bit of a learning curve. Our goal is to give up less than three goals against and I think that loss has sparked a fire under us for Sunday.”